City of Basketball Love

Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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(Ed. Note: This story is part of CoBL’s “Prepping for Preps” series, which will take a look at many of the top high school programs in the region as part of our 2022-23 season preview coverage. The complete list of schools previewed thus far can be found here.)
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Since arriving in the area hoops scene at Malvern Prep in 2013, Phelps School coach John Harmatuk has talked about playing fast.

To outside observers that’s exactly what his teams did for eight years at Malvern and in his first season at Phelps — push the pace, space the floor and score a whole bunch of points.

Harmatuk always envisioned faster.

In his second year with the Lions, Harmatuk may have a team to speed past them all. 

Phelps is out to an early 7-0 mark this season with totals of 98-or-more points in five of those seven games, including a season-high 122 points.

“My teams in the past have played at a high pace, but this group’s actually playing at the tempo I want them to play,” Harmatuk said prior to his team hosting and winning the Phelps Invitational earlier this month.

“I think that’s how it should be played and the offensive spacing and so if we beat everybody down the floor and we get to our space it’s really hard to guard,” he added. “And it’s fun. And a big key is we can play a lot of people. That’s important to me.”

Harmatuk has no shortage of talent on his roster. 

Guards Malcolm Wrisby-Jefferson (Brown commit) and Saleem Payne are the only returners back from last year’s squad that lost by one to the Hill School in the PAISAA quarterfinals, but Harmatuk added a pair of post grads and a loaded 2025 class to the mix.

“It’s super exciting and the fact that we have a good solid core of older kids … having a strong senior class really allows the young kids to get in there and make mistakes and learn and get better everyday,” Harmatuk said. “It’s a good mixture. It’s a good group.”

Post grad guard IV Pettit was a third team All-PCL for Devon Prep’s 2022 state title team and can add some scoring and experience to Wrisby-Jefferson and Payne in the backcourt. Another post grad guard Charlie Bell Jr. (6-4), whose father was an NCAA champion at Michigan State before a seven-year NBA career, adds some athleticism and physicality in the backcourt.

Then there’s that high-upside sophomore class that includes Will Riley (6-8), Onyx Nnani (6-9), Gavin Doty (6-5) and Justin Houser (7-0), who re-classified earlier this fall. They have Division I offers and interest already with more to likely come during their time at Phelps.

“A lot of those kids are going to be high major some day,” Payne said. “I think we got a pretty solid team with young talent and we can definitely go somewhere this year.”

One of the places the Lions would like to go is winning a PAISAA championship. It’s something the program hasn’t accomplished since 2015 and something no one on this Phelps team has come close to after last season’s tight loss to Hill in the quarters.

“We had the chance, we just didn’t capitalize on it,” Wrisby-Jefferson said. “It wasn’t the talent. It wasn’t the hungriness. In the last stretch of the last game we played, we just didn’t capitalize so I feel like if we can just capitalize and finish all the way through the whole season, I feel like we’ve got a chance to win the state.”

The Lions will also play in the Great Atlantic Conference for the second straight season. The GAC hosted multiple conference tournaments among its high-level prep programs last season like Phelps, Perkiomen School, Mt. Zion Prep and Scotland Campus and should provide more high-level competition for the Lions this season.

Phelps added another opportunity for exposure Dec. 28 when it will play a televised game in the Jump Man Classic in New York City.

“That’s a big deal for our program to take it to a higher stage,” Harmatuk said. “We’re really looking forward to that. That’ll be fun, and all the big matchups that we have throughout the year. Competition and good games are what this is about.”

Payne and Wrisby-Jefferson will be leaned on throughout the loaded slate as the rest of the roster goes through the rigorous schedule for the first time.

They should have no problem carrying out Harmatuk’s pace on the floor and his principles off it.

“Those two are so important because they speak our language,” Harmatuk said.

“By using our terminology, it’s easy to learn and then to explain how important winning PAISAA is and that’s one of our goals. And what that GAC is. We have such very different levels of league and things having guys speak the language is crucial.”

With one trophy in hand, Phelps would like to run its way to a few more and other accolades before the season ends.

“I feel as though we’re going to play very hard this year,” Payne said. “We got the talent. If we match hard work, it’s over. I think we can win a lot.”